How long is the GO train ride from Aurora or Newmarket to Union Station?

On the Barrie GO line, Aurora to Union is roughly 50 to 55 minutes and Newmarket to Union is roughly an hour or a little more, depending on the train. Schedules and travel times change, so check the current GO Transit schedule and, more importantly, time your full trip from your front door to your desk before you commit.

Does the Richmond Hill GO line run all day?

As of this writing, no. The Richmond Hill line runs trains during weekday rush hours, toward Union in the morning and back in the afternoon, with buses covering other times. Service patterns do change, so confirm the current schedule with GO Transit, and think honestly about whether a rush-hour-only train fits your actual work life.

Which town along the corridor has the best schools?

I do not rank schools, and I would be careful with anyone who does it confidently. Rankings change, catchment boundaries move, and a school that suits one child may not suit another. Families should confirm the current catchment with the school board directly, visit the school, and treat any published ranking as a starting point for questions rather than an answer.

For buyers and sellers · Advisory

Where Along Yonge Street Does Your Life Fit? North York to Newmarket by Life Stage

One corridor, four life stages. How first condos in North York, family homes in Thornhill and Richmond Hill, the GO-train towns of Aurora and Newmarket, and downsizing all fit along Yonge Street, and what to check at each stage.

5 min read

Jasmina Zivkovic

REALTOR®, RE/MAX Your Community Realty Inc.

Have you noticed that one street can hold a whole life?

Yonge Street runs from the lake up past Newmarket, and on the stretch between North York and Newmarket I have watched the same families buy a first condo, then a first house, then a bigger yard, and then, years later, trade the yard for sidewalks again. It is the same corridor, but four different lives.

So when clients ask me “which town is best?”, I gently push back. That is not the useful question. The useful question is: what stage of life are you buying for? Let me walk you through the corridor that way.

Where does a first condo make sense?

For most first-time buyers I work with, the answer starts in North York, in the condo clusters around the Sheppard-Yonge and North York Centre areas, reaching up toward Finch.

What you are really weighing here is transit and daily life. Line 1 of the TTC subway ends its Yonge branch at Finch Station, so a condo in these pockets puts the subway, groceries, and an evening walk on Yonge all within reach without a car. That convenience is what you are really buying. The unit itself is almost secondary.

There is also a financial question that is often overlooked at this stage: the maintenance fee is part of your monthly carrying cost for as long as you own the unit, so a difference of a few hundred dollars a month deserves the same attention you give the purchase price.

What surprises buyers at this stage is that the building matters more than the suite. A beautiful kitchen cannot fix thin walls, and a low maintenance fee today can hide an underfunded building tomorrow.

What I make my clients check: the status certificate, reviewed by a lawyer, with real attention to the reserve fund health. And before any offer, we visit the unit at night and listen. Soundproofing is a hidden risk you cannot renovate away.

Where does a first family home fit?

When the second bedroom stops being enough, my clients usually look at Thornhill, Richmond Hill, and Markham. Each is a different trade-off, not a ranking.

Thornhill sits closest to Finch Station, so it keeps the shortest bus-or-drive link to the subway. Richmond Hill and Markham generally offer more house and lot for a similar budget as you move further from the subway, with townhouses and semis as honest middle steps when a detached home is out of reach.

Families at this stage weigh space, commute, and schools. On schools I will only say this: catchments and rankings change, so confirm the catchment with the school board and visit the school yourself. Do not buy a house off a ranking table.

The surprise at this stage is the commute. North of Finch there is no subway today. York Region’s Viva buses run along Yonge, and the Yonge North Subway Extension is under construction with five planned stations at Steeles, Clark, Royal Orchard, Bridge and High Tech. But it is not open, and no opening date has been announced. I tell my clients plainly: do not pay tomorrow’s subway premium on a line with no opening date. Buy the commute that exists.

What I make my clients check: drive or ride the actual commute, on a weekday, at your real hour, twice. The map says twenty minutes. Your own Tuesday at 8 a.m. is the only number I trust.

When does the GO train change the math?

Further up the corridor, Aurora and Newmarket are where the same budget starts buying noticeably more space, and where the commute conversation switches from the subway to the GO train.

Both towns sit on the Barrie GO line. As of this writing, Aurora to Union Station runs roughly 50 to 55 minutes and Newmarket to Union roughly an hour or a little more, depending on the train. Richmond Hill has its own GO line, but it runs trains only during weekday rush hours, toward Union in the morning and back in the afternoon, with buses at other times. Schedules change, so check the current GO Transit schedules rather than my snapshot.

What people weigh here is value and community feel against commute length. Aurora and Newmarket both have older main streets, so each town has a real centre, a place where you bump into your neighbours. Many of the newer subdivisions closer to Toronto never developed one.

What surprises buyers is that the GO calculus is door to desk, not station to Union. Add the drive to the station, parking, the walk from Union, and a 55-minute train becomes a 90-minute morning. For some of my clients, especially those in the office two or three days a week, that trade is comfortably worth it. However, for a five-day commuter it can become exhausting.

What I make my clients check: ride the GO train at your real hour, both directions, before you offer. Count the whole trip. If the math only works on the schedule you hope for, it does not work.

Can you downsize without leaving the corridor?

This is the stage people rarely plan for. However, the corridor has more options for it than most people expect.

Downsizers I work with usually want three things: less to maintain, walkable errands, and to stay near the people and routines of their life. Leaving the region entirely is rarely what they actually want once we talk it through. The corridor offers a gentler answer: condos and bungalows near Yonge in Richmond Hill, Aurora, and Newmarket, or a return south toward North York where the subway makes a car optional again, all without giving up the family dinners and the familiar doctor.

The surprise at this stage is that downsizing into a condo means doing first-condo homework all over again, sometimes after thirty years away from it. The building’s finances, the soundproofing, the elevator wait times, how the hallways sound at night: livability is the whole purchase now.

What I make my clients check: the status certificate and reserve fund, again, always. And we walk through the building at three different times of day before deciding. A quiet Tuesday morning showing can hide a very different Saturday night.

The street is the same at every stage, and so is my method: weigh the life, not just the house, and investigate before you fall in love.

If you are between stages, you are in good company; most of my clients are. Buy for the life you are stepping into, not the one you are leaving. The corridor will still be here for the next stage, and so will I.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Yonge North Subway Extension open yet?: No. The Yonge North Subway Extension is under construction, not in service. It is planned to extend Line 1 north from Finch Station with five stations at Steeles, Clark, Royal Orchard, Bridge and High Tech, but no opening date has been announced. Check Metrolinx's project page for the current status before you let a future subway influence what you pay today.
How long is the GO train ride from Aurora or Newmarket to Union Station?: On the Barrie GO line, Aurora to Union is roughly 50 to 55 minutes and Newmarket to Union is roughly an hour or a little more, depending on the train. Schedules and travel times change, so check the current GO Transit schedule and, more importantly, time your full trip from your front door to your desk before you commit.
Does the Richmond Hill GO line run all day?: As of this writing, no. The Richmond Hill line runs trains during weekday rush hours, toward Union in the morning and back in the afternoon, with buses covering other times. Service patterns do change, so confirm the current schedule with GO Transit, and think honestly about whether a rush-hour-only train fits your actual work life.
Which town along the corridor has the best schools?: I do not rank schools, and I would be careful with anyone who does it confidently. Rankings change, catchment boundaries move, and a school that suits one child may not suit another. Families should confirm the current catchment with the school board directly, visit the school, and treat any published ranking as a starting point for questions rather than an answer.